Dashou's Dreams

[Dashou]

A journal kept by a lonely boy in Fukushima sits quietly on its desk.
You turn a page to find that what is kept inside is not just daily rambles from time to time, but a neat record of what appear to be nonsensical stories.
Some are scary, some are silly, some make you wonder.
As you take a closer look, you find that these aren’t just random stories, but dreams from that very boy himself.

Welcome to Dashou’s Dreams.

☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁

To those that choose to read:
Sometimes a dream might be more vague than others. This could be due to just having forgotten details once I woke up, or omitting certain things that would be best left unwritten.
I will try to do this daily, if possible, as we all have to sleep sometime, right?
You are free to comment, send messages, or what have you here on this blog. Please be respectful.

[Dashou]

Escape


My dream starts with darkness. Then, my eyes begin to open.

Waking up in a room, the first thing that I notice is that it is almost jam-packed with people, mostly unfamiliar to me besides one familiar face of a coworker.  They all look like your average person in their average clothes—all in equal states of confusion at finding themselves in this room filled with people. The second thing I notice is that this room, while it has no windows and a single heavy door, is mostly made of concrete. Then, on the ceiling there looks to be a pipe, but there are no signs that tell us what comes out of it. The last thing I notice is that a lot of these people, save myself and a few others, are chained to the ground by their ankles. Just as I was looking at these chains around the feet of these strangers, there was a loud gurgle and then water came rushing out from the pipe in the ceiling. Water soon began to quickly fill the room to everyone’s terror, especially those chained with no way of escape. However, those with the ability to move took the next obvious step—finding a way to get the door open. Upon initial inspection, it didn’t appear that the door was locked, but it certainly wasn’t opening.

Of course with the water now at everyone’s thighs, the panic was high. This led people to resort to using their whole bodies to try to break open the door. By some pure luck, the door opened from the other side, forcing people to back up out of its way as an individual tumbled into the room, landing square on his face. This man looked to be a rather tall man, easily over six foot. Probably in his late forties, showing sign of age and hair loss in the typical male pattern baldness. Unlike the rest of us who were all dressed in our every day clothes, this man was dressed down in rags. Torn and bloody, it was obvious the man had seen some better days. Not to mention that much like his raggedy clothes, his skin also didn’t appear to be the healthiest, taking on a graying green color. Definitely not a natural tone for someone you’d expect to be healthy. This, combined with the fact that shortly after falling the man suddenly grabbed the nearest person’s ankle and bite right through the flesh, made everyone come to the conclusion that the man was a zombie.

But the door was open.

Now with the water no longer being a threat as it poured out of the open doorway, everyone that wasn’t chained down, minus the one that had been bitten, escaped the room, leaving those that were chained to an unknown fate (I’m sorry). The door let out int this dark hallway that was filled with even more zombies. All which were pretty easily avoidable to those that could run fast (me included). So about me and 4 other people made it to the end of this hallway where three more doors waited for us. Each of us split into different groups, one asian boy following me into the door directly at the end of the hall. This doorway suddenly led into a very well lit house. A bit shocking in contrast to the concrete room and hallway filled with moaning zombies.

Being better safe than sorry, the both of us shut the door behind us once we both were through the door. Just as the door shut with a faint click, an objective, much like you’d see in a typical video game appeared above our heads reading, “Steal what you can, but be quiet!” I don’t know why this message propelled me to do so, but here I was, finding myself grabbing random knick-knacks and some old, brown leather wallet. Unfortunately for me, this was the time my companion decided to get very talkative. Feeling a little uneasy, I did what I thought would be best and hid inside of a little cabinet on the floor of this living room. Even though the door was shut, I could still see through the wood of the cabinet, allowing me to watch as this boy proceeded to talk up a storm to himself as he began to make his way up a staircase I hadn’t noticed before and vanished around a corner on the second floor.

One second.


Two seconds.

It couldn’t have been more than three when this boy suddenly came running back, screaming. Then, just as he began to make his way down the stairs, the reason behind the screaming came chasing after him in the form of a rather Scrooge looking old man with a cane. I’m guessing this was his house, and this was his wallet that was still nestled away in my hand. Trying to be as quiet as possible, I watched, in utter horror, as the boy looked around for a place to hide with this man hot on his trail, only to decide to choose the same cabinet where I was hiding. I doubted the old man was a fool, or blind, as he probably was watching as the boy proceeded to climb inside, on the opposite end of where I was. As expected, the man quickly walked up to the cabinet, luckily only opening the door where the other boy had entered through and only seemed to notice him.

With an inhumane amount of strength, and never letting go of his cane, the old man dragged the boy out of the cabinet by his foot and then across the floor towards another room. Just as the man’s back was to the cabinet, a little icon appeared near his foot reading, “distracted.” Taking that as my cue, I quickly, and quietly, ran out of the cabinet and out through what appeared to be a front door (which luckily, was unlocked). Then I found myself in an unfamiliar neighborhood in the dead of night with only dim street lights illuminating the roads. Although I didn’t know where I was, my feet seemed to carry me in a particular direction, running down the sidewalk until it curved into a colder-sac, where there was an all black house waiting there for me.

Thinking this was my way out of the nightmare I was in, I quickly rushed up to the door and instead of knocking, I simply opened the door. Behind the door, just like the rest of the house and the night sky above, it was pitch black—a void, if you will. And it was just a brief moment of hesitation before out of the darkness suddenly came a pair of the same old man’s arms, reaching out and grabbing me by the shirt before pulling me inside.

Maybe it was just the moment of shock that did so, but this was enough to wake me up from this dream.

[Dashou]

"Insecurities" and "Backstage" --Two Shorts


[Insecurities- 3/24/2019] My first dream started off with me looking down at a wooden floor that had an ominous red glow from an unknown source of light that was dangling overhead. Looking up, I could see a little ways in front of me were very obscured faces, an audience of spectators that sat before me. No details, just emotionless shadows that sat still as if frozen. Immediately a sense of fear kicked in knowing that this was none other than a stage that I stood on. Only that fear turned worse when looking down again to realize that my body was bared for the whole audience to see. A body covered in scars, a history filled with shame, and so much more. Although my first instinct was to cover myself, that did little to prevent the voices to begin to start. Whether or not they were from people I have heard in my life, I don't know, but no kind words were said as the audience criticize and humiliate me. Luckily this was just the gist of the dream, making it a fairly short one. But definitely woke up with those insecurities still on my mind.


[Backstage - 3/26/2019] My second dream started off with me running through this open field that was filled several festival booths, the kind you'd see pictures of when searching festivals in Japan. I had empty book bags and apparently one thing on mind--I had to get my stuff from my work desk that was somewhere within this festival. Having some sense of urgency, I ran through this festival, looking at the various booths filled with foods and random knick-knacks like it was a mix between a food festival and some flea market. Eventually I came stumbling upon my desk which was sitting besides a small booth that was selling used books. Of course, since my desk naturally had textbooks I needed for teaching, there was a patron that was at my desk, rifling through my stuff. When I approached them, they mistook me for a booth owner, asking me how much my textbooks were. Awkwardly I had to explain to this lady that they were not for sale before quickly trying to shove everything I could into my book bags before anyone else could try to take any of my belongings. Once I had everything, I began making my way out of the field and towards this large building that was a ways away from the festival. It was a large black and purple building, that was in the shape of a whistle. The entrance the only part sticking out of this otherwise cylindrical building. Stepping inside, I was immediately greeted by backlights and a bunch of patrons in outfits that were very reminiscent of the stereotypical college jocks. Somehow, some way, I was told this was where I was to meet other people to have a show as a way of saying thanks for all my hard work and to say goodbye to the retiring folk in my office. I didn't know what kind of show it was to be, but I settled down once I entered the larger stadium area inside of the building and took a seat on the floor like a lot of patrons were already doing. In front of me was a large black stage and this odd shape that encircled the entire thing. It took a moment or two, but when the dim lights turned on to illuminate the stage, the show began.

The first thing that was notable of this stage was that this large shape circling it, was large and the shade of silly putty. Because it was upside down, it was a bit hard to tell what it was, but once you got a good look at it, you could tell it was some kind of gigantic millipede that was laying on its back. A bit odd, but as the legs started to wiggle, music began to play. What in the world? Each of the legs that moved each played a different sound or a different tone. A mix of different musical instruments coming together to create the music for the show that was supposedly starting. Once I could peel my eyes away from the strange music source, I looked up on stage to see some questionably aged people dressed in sparkling purple gymnastic unitards with red stars on them. I say questionably aged because some were kids, some were adults, but they all sounded like old people when they began to sing (rather horribly) some song I don't know and probably doesn't actually exist. They sang this song while also doing what most likely didn't pass as gymnastics. Maybe if someone did gymnastics with horrible, horrible arthritis of their entire body? I don't know, but it was a big painful to watch, which is why I ended up leaving before the end of it. When I stepped back outside, the scenery outside had changed and instead of a festival, there was a large lake where it used to be.

As I walked around the edge of the lake, I looked at the water to see there was this pink pig with these hairy black spots swimming around in the water. The end of the dream was essentially me just watching this pig swimming around and oinking every so often.